Notes from Winter Chill Out 2022

More than $78,000 raised for A Kid Again

Farmhouse Kitchen & Grill - Chef driven showcase style. Open pit cooking. 100% from scratch. Mobile butcher blocks. Will be grilling in front of guests.

Lemmy’s Walking Tacos is coming to Cedar Point Shores.

Town Hall Museum project is on indefinite hold.

Hopeful that going cashless and some mobile ordering will improve food and beverage speed of service. Coasters Drive-In will have mobile ordering in 2022, with additional locations possible

Due to supply chain issues, not sure if sippers will return this season.

I saw a post somewhere else about new trains for Millennium Force? There was a crate photographed I guess…

Did they provide any detail on indoor seating at the new restaurant?

And that’s a shame about Town Hall. The park really needs a place for its history; not hopeful that this project will ever materialize now.

There doesn't appear to be indoor seating for the Farmhouse Kitchen and Grill. A large outdoor seating area on the Wave Swinger side of the building will have a live entertainment stage.

The crate in maintenance was a new lift cable for millennium force.

Happy with what I'm seeing on the farmhouse so far. The costume people were tight-lipped on the new stage so maybe there is something bigger going on there.

Looks like I was wrong about the shores subway remaining. Walking tacos weren't great, but not bad for some variety. I wonder if the topping options will be identical to the in park location. I can see why they want to be slow on the roll out of the online food ordering based on all the issues their current web store has.

The silence on plans for the wicked twister site, or any of the other recent removals, was expected but still frustrating. Even though no one could say anything about dragster, the mood around it left me less optimistic than I was this morning.

Hudson said:

Even though no one could say anything about dragster, the mood around it left me less optimistic than I was this morning.

Can you explain what you mean a little more?

Nothing solid, was just the general feeling I got, as if it was already gone. In hindsight it may not be warranted and kinda makes sense as it was mainly maintenance people available to talk to and any decisions are out of their hands for now. It's up to the leadership/legal who can only give us prepared statements and 'don't ask' slides.

mgou58 said:
I saw a post somewhere else about new trains for Millennium Force? There was a crate photographed I guess…

I saw photographs of Millennium Force chassis and lap bars being rebuilt. I suspect the crate was either some mundane replacement part, or another example of the maintenance team deliberately trolling the WCO attendees.

Did they provide any detail on indoor seating at the new restaurant?

I have been told by an attendee that the new restaurant won't have indoor seating; it's the same setup as Back Beat Que. Nobody said, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if the renovations at Coasters result in the indoor seating being removed from there.

And that’s a shame about Town Hall. The park really needs a place for its history; not hopeful that this project will ever materialize now.

I'm especially dismayed about that one. It would have been better to leave it alone rather than gut it, then stop the project.

--Dave Althoff, Jr. ( <-- Was not at Winter Chill-Out)

Nothing was mentioned in the 8am group presentation, but I heard that Miss Keats might be going back to Burritos was announced in a later session. Did anyone hear that?

What seems to be the reason for the pause on Town Hall? I get pausing it for 2020 but with Farmhouse debuting right in the middle of Frontier Town it seems like the perfect time to debut the new museum. Is it a money thing? Covid thing?

Vince-Everything is a money thing.

Tony's tone when he answered the Town Hall question in the 8am group session was VERY pessimistic. I could see that building staying closed for a long time. I know the old museum was super old looking, but I wish they could have just left it open as is, rather than lose it altogether.

I'll withhold full judgement until I'm able to make it to the park and see how all of this plays out in the actual visiting experience, but I get the sense that they're almost certainly in money-saving mode and will continue to be for a bit yet. How much of that is from downstream effects of covid closures and operation changes at CP vs CF as a whole is out of my pay range, but I can't see it not being related to that. Throw in the Dragster incident and all the costs either already incurred or to be incurred (litigation, whatever ends up happening with TTD, plus whatever they deem they're losing by it not operating) and I can see why these all seem like pretty lean updates.

The indoor/outdoor seating debate does make me scratch my head, since it's not like the weather at the Point is known for the comparative bland steadiness of say, a Southern California. Hypothetical money saved by not needing wait or bussing staff shouldn't be a factor for a cafeteria-style eatery, and I can't imagine the utilities cost of a smaller building is that much more significant. I mean, I guess if suddenly Coasters and Johnny Rockets lose their seats we'll know it's clearly a business decision -somewhere-, but it's still kind of weird.

Dan,

When considering the updates for this year, we can't forget about the sizable investment into the Castaway Bay and Sawmill renovations. Increased resorts revenue seems to be where they're hoping to earn their most revenue this year. For now, they aren't willing to put money into renovating a museum which nets them zero direct revenue in return.

I was at the event yesterday, the crate from Intamin was simply mundane replacement parts for Millennium according to maintenance staff. They did do an excellent job of hiding TTD's trains, they were nowhere to be found in the maintenance shops nor on the midways. And with all the new merch I saw at Point Plaza, none of it was for TTD. Old TTD merch was still out for sale at least. On a bulletin board in the maintenance shop, the 21-22 offseason maintenance schedule had three mechanics listed for Millennium and Maverick each, but only one listed for Dragster. Take from all that what you will.

I also briefly spoke to RJ (executive chef) after the presentation and he did confirm a burrito-style menu would return at Miss Keats. Along with that, at least at that restaurant for now, will be the return of the Barrilitos Aguas Frescas drinks which I missed very much on hot days last year.

In all, we're down three rides (incl. two major coasters) and up one restaurant and two renovated resorts for this year, with everyone in the region holding $99 season passes. They have their work cut out for them for their "best day experience" goals.

Thanks for pointing that out Tyler, I actually had completely forgotten about the resort improvements while writing the post earlier. The renovations at both resorts by all accounts were very much needed so I'm not arguing that. Come to think of it, were the Castaway Bay rooms renovated when it changed over from the Radisson, or were they pretty much kept as they were? Either way that's a good long time for room interiors, and if you want proof of that, go stay at a Quality Inn or Baymont that used to be a Holiday Inn or Comfort Inn that used to be something fancier and so forth, but I digress.

I do agree with your last statement though, will be curious to see how it plays out.

I believe the rooms were renovated as part of the original Radisson-Castaway Bay transformation in '04. But if you look at the updates to Breakers, LHP/Camper Village, and Express over the last several years, it seems like the CP resort properties generally are getting about a 15-year timespan between receiving some sort of major update or addition. I'm sure those rooms needed it.

I was a bit surprised that they didn't use this opportunity to add anything new to the waterpark itself other than a coat of paint and matching decor. Most likely a cost-benefit reasoning behind that as well.

I understand budgets need to be followed and things happen, but I’m just wondering the WHY of the town hall. Seems like a relatively simple job compared to all the other work being done. Is there some issue with the displays? Some issue with the money?

With the crowds they are likely to pull on busy days, plus the reduced ride lineup, plus the larger resort guest base, plus the VERY inexpensive price point, plus the operational slowdowns we've seen in recent years, plus the massive oversell of FLP... lines lines lines. If they lose any major coaster for a period of weeks (like Gatekeeper last year), yikes.

My notes were from the 12:00 p.m. presentation for the 10:00 a.m. group. Thanks to those filling in the Q&A gaps from the other three sessions.

Another WCO note, look for WCO 2023 to be "bigger and better."

https://twitter.com/TonyClarkCP/status/1497706018972782598

https://twitter.com/TonyClarkCP/status/1497633006143655937

From talking to at least one person who was there, and from reading various accounts online, it sounds like they made some infrastructure changes to the event between the time they sold the tickets and the actual event; my guess is that has to do with plans for next year, and probably increased their capacity for the event.

Just guessing, of course. But from what I heard, it sounds, for instance, like the scheduled arrival times were rendered kind of meaningless.

--Dave Althoff Jr.